Town boss Paul Jewell says he will speak to trialist keeper Marian Kello about joining the Blues, but worries that employing three keepers might be too much for the budget. Slovakian international Kello, a free agent after leaving Hearts at the end of last season, played the full 90 minutes of last night’s 1-1 draw in Den Bosch having played half of the previous friendly at Helmond Sport, which also ended 1-1.
Jewell said: "I think he’s done OK, Marian, he hasn’t had an awful lot to do in the one and a half games that he’s played, but it’s something that we’ll look at.
"I think I’ll speak with him and see what the situation with him is. We’ve got Arran Lee-Barrett as well, so we may not be able to have three goalkeepers on our books.”
Kello, 29, started his career with FC KoÅ¡ice in Slovakia before moving on to Czech side FC VÃtkovice, then Lithuanian club FBK Kaunas before joining Hearts in 2008, initially on loan.
In 2010 when his Kaunas contract had expired he signed a two-year deal with the Jambos. He terminated his contract with the Edinburgh side in April and came close to joining Aston Villa early in the summer.
The Blues boss has already added one keeper to the squad this week and he was delighted to have landed Scott Loach from Watford: "We think he’s got huge potential. He’s played for England’s U21s. He’s played a lot of games for Watford and we’re really pleased to have him.
"It had been going on a while, to be honest, and I think the fact is we think we’ve secured a really good goalie.
"We’ve had to wait and there’s been a lot of speculation about other players. He’s was our number one target for a while.
"We thought that this summer might be the time that we might be able to get him and that’s proved right. I think we’ve got a really good deal.
"I know he used to be in the academy before he moved away, so he is an Ipswich Town fan and he’s delighted to be here. We’re pleased to have him and he’ll be looking forward to starting training with the lads on Monday.”
As for Town’s two French trialists, left winger Plaisir Bahamboula and left-back Soualio Bakayoko, Jewell feels the 21-year-olds have been left exhausted by the pre-season training regime: "I think you could see they were really tired [during the Den Bosch game].
"We really have worked them hard. It’s difficult coming into a team that doesn’t speak the same language. They’ve done OK, but today was just about giving them 45 minutes each and they did OK.”
The Town manager says his fourth signing of the summer is close with work on deals ongoing despite him being in Holland this week: "We’ve got a few things going on. We’ve got to be patient at the moment because we’ve got a month and I want to make sure that we get the right ones in.”
Speaking at yesterday's press conference to formally announce Loach's signing, chief executive Simon Clegg was similarly confident that another addition might not be too far away: "One deal is moving from tepid to fairly warm. I’m hopeful that over the next couple of days we can make another announcement.”
Jewell says there has been no progress on cutting through the red tape which is preventing Cheick Kourouma from signing on the dotted line and that the Blues have received no offers for any current members of the squad: "We haven’t had any interest in any of our players as far as I’m aware. We’re more interested in bringing people in.”